Thursday, November 30, 2006

A few days ago, on the running forum, someone posted a question. A question that all of us often ask.

How do you improve your health?

Here was my reply:

- sleep 7-8 hr a day- eat as much veges and fruits as you can- reduce as much fast food and junk as you can- keep your life stress free (don't cramp with too much activities)

Someone did menthion drinking lots of water. I guess 4/5 ain't bad.

Healthy living is really simple. But how often have we gone into sophisticate method (calorie counting), fad diet (alkins) and all bunch of fancy shamcy stuff (you know that secret root from that tribe in Africa that makes people skinny and happy and have beautiful hair...) that we forgot about the basics.

I, myself, confess that I have trouble following my own suggestion. Sleeping 7-8 hr a day is a challenge.

My answer ain't rocket science. I read a few days ago that scientist discovered that eating more veges can improve your health and reduce the risks of cancer. Really. You mean all the time my parents didn't lie to me when they told me I should finish my veges b/c they are good for me?

The amount of knowledge and science we have about health and nutrition is staggering. Just go to your local book stores. They have stacks of books about nutrition and health. If we know so much about helathy living, how come people are not getting healthier?

Here is where the rubber meets the road. Very few people are willing to make a lifestyle change to become healthier. We know but we often don't do. I, myself, is a sinner of that as well.

Looking at it from a Christian perspective. The Bible, the Word of God, have many references and lessons to teach us how to stay true to our faith. There are many, many books written about Christian living. Knowledge over thousands of years are compile and readily available. Yet we still struggle in sins. We all choose to be complacent.

Jesus gave us the simplest answer of all. When He was challenged by the Pharisees about the greatest Commandent to follow..His answer (Matthew 22:37-39):

'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'[b]This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[c]"

It is not what we know, rather but what we do. More importantly, where the rubber meets the road, is our actions consistent with what we know?

15 comments:

Fantastic and insightful post Cliff! You're right, I know that I'm always making maintaining my health - both physical and spiritual - more difficult than it needs to be. I constantly have to remind myself to learn to crawl before I can walk. Is Omega-3 or that fancy African root gonna help me lose weight unless I actually start doing something as "easy" as checking the fat content of food I buy? How can I advance in my faith when I haven't even learned to simply love my neighbour? The most expensive tri-bike in the world ain't gonna help me one bit unless I actually get out there and ride it. And just like James preached, faith without works is dead. Thanks for the reminder Cliff!

You're so right! People go looking for some new and glitzy way to get fit, as if it were some great mystery that needs solving with fancy gadgets and convoluted methods.

Anyone who believes in God (one doesn't even have to be Christian) must surely understand that we weren't given a body so we can abuse and neglect it. That's disrespectful. It's like if your parents gave you a strong and beautiful house and you let it fall apart from sheer laziness.

Unless one is suffering from a serious medical condition, caring for one's "house" is soooo easy! Healthy foods + exercise. That's all it takes.

It's nice to go the extra mile and do sports, but keeping your body in good repair really takes just half an hour a day and a rational eating plan based on the wonderful foods the Creator put here for us.

It is not what we know, but what we do. Ah. you are SO right! Is what we know and what we do consistent? Hmmm...very thoughful question. Good work. And...for me---keeping the stress level down in hard these days. Very hard.

I just love this post Cliff. Our society makes living right such a difficulty. That's such a major part of the problem. Inner strength, however each of us finds it, is the way I suppose. "Lord give me strength" is where I go to ask for help.

Mom also told me to eat my veggies....but she wanted mine to be full of colors--how right she was, huh? Yay Moms!!

Kind of along the same lines, I love the reference for how to treat your body in the First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians. Chapter 9, verses 24-27.

"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I should have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."

For one, how cool that the Bible talks about running. And the part that I like about it is that Paul is talking about training your body to do what it should do, not what it wants to do. My body totally wants to sit down with a box of chocolates, a cigarette and a beer, but I bring that into subjection, as I need to practice what I preach.

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